Camas

by Woodsbum

Today I decided that a great edible plant to cover would be the camas. The two varieties that grow here in the PNW are the Great Camas and Common Camas. Considering that fact that I live near the town of Camas, it actually made me happy to cover it here.

Camas around here have a blue bulb that is edible. Be careful because it is actually very similar to the Death Camases that are poisonous. The bad ones have white flowers where the edible ones have blue. They actually grow in similar areas so it would be easy to confuse the two.

The best tasting preparation for the blue camas varieties is to roast or boil the bulb slowly and then dry it. You can find the blue camas in foothill regions or on moist plains.

camas

If you travel around the foothills of Western Washington much at all it is very common to run across the blue camas. From what I have been told the best time to harvest this plant is in the fall once the flowers have withered. The bulbs taste very similar to a sweet potato. From what I understand the bulbs can also be dried and pounded into a flour for baking.

Next time you are out in the bush here in the PNW and see some of these guys, harvest a few bulbs and try them out.

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